Analysis of Escape from the Pandemic



It's dead December, we're getting nowhere, ready
for vaccine like a starving tribe shoved from behind
under the bridge, kicking some dust along the way.
A hand holds my arm, hoarse voices coaxes

Life's swindler races to the moon, go to its amusement park!

Is this real or my imagination, girls with mini-skirts, open blouses
giggling by the shore, tossing their suntanned bodies around.
A warm breeze adds to their childish delight.  A mother duck's teaching
its toddler how to swim, and kids swarming the ice cream bicyclist
who demands them to line up  but they rush forward screaming, falling.
I stumble on a diaper and run to the ocean to clean, that's where the senior
boys hang out and, occasionally, a boat approaches and some hands wave
at the crowd. The sun stares them down, the sand swallows their long shadow, and the tide swings them back and forth, showing traces
of oil slick. Sunburned, I jump over a dune, a crumpled book drops from my pocket, Sonnets of Love, a bearded old man picks it up and reads

It's a sunlight in the darkness, and its name is love.  O love, you cook no more fervent. Do not fry my feelings on a cold grill! Is love the only thing that keeps us apart? Yes darling. Thanks heaven.

He's calm and peaceful with a contemplative face speaking generations,
life whirls before him like a movie reel in an outdoor cinema, maybe he was a
forest firefighter, who jumped from the planes to put out the smoke, or worked at a convenient store, where he got his supply of cigarette, or a bus driver who always greeted you with a cheery smile. He points to a woman slumped to a chair, "that's my lady, used to be quite a gal, but is now just happy to be around." I shudder when I think of the moment, when death
keeps them apart. Before that happens, he must thank her again for her many kindnesses.


Scheme XXXA X BXCXCXXBX X XXXA
Poetic Form
Metre 11010110110 11101011101 100110110101 0111111010 1100101011110101 111110010111011010 10010110111001 0111111001010110 110111011001110 1011111111101010 11010100110101111010 111001000010100111 101011110110111001111011010 111111100101011111010110101111101 10100100111111111110111110101111010111101110110 11010100100110010 110111010101110010110 1010111011110111100101111101101101101110110101111010110111101111011111101101110111101011 11010111011100110101
Characters 1,838
Words 347
Sentences 17
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 1, 9, 1, 4
Lines Amount 19
Letters per line (avg) 75
Words per line (avg) 18
Letters per stanza (avg) 285
Words per stanza (avg) 67

About this poem

originally posted on poetrysoup.com

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Written on November 12, 2023

Submitted by faraneh2 on December 26, 2023

1:46 min read
3

kaveh L. Afrasiabi

political science professor and author of more than 30 books, both scholarly and fiction including 7 poetry books, lives in Boston more…

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